I want to see Rock & Roll so badly. So very, very, very badly. Stoppard is my drug of choice, theater-wise, and it's been a while since I've had a fix, though this one looks set to exceed my expectations. After all, who better to juxtapose the lives of a Marxist philosopher and an anti-communist rock band than Sir Tom?
I heard that they are in discussions to take it to New York. I love the way he is so interested in ideas and deals with them so confidently, especially in this piece and in Travesties. Mind you, I did take a strong dislike to the guy a few years ago when I saw a photo of him with Thatcher. It's difficult to tally with the content of this play, that's for sure; as Michael Billington says, the portrayal of the barely repentant CP Marxist is very sympathetic.
Actually a google for Stoppard and Thatcher turns up this very interesting article, inevitably from the Guardian again:
In the mid-70s Stoppard became active on behalf of Soviet dissidents and visited the Sakharovs in Moscow in 1977; he supported Charter 77 - a pressure group campaigning for human rights in Czechoslovakia - and went to Prague to meet the recently released playwright Václav Havel, whose work he admired. From this involvement came Every Good Boy Deserves Favour , his musical-theatrical collaboration with André Previn, and the TV play Professional Foul. It was the
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You actually took a strong dislike to the man simply because you saw a photograph of him standing next to Margaret Thatcher? Wouldn't you call that a bit... hasty? I mean, sure, if I happened upon a picture of Stoppard giving the thumbs up with his arm around, say, Charles Taylor, then I think my opinion would turn, but, uh, the Baroness? Different story. Fewer death squads.
I wouldn't say that I like Stoppard and his work expressly for his/its politics -- I can get that anywhere -- but I appreciate the fact that he's thought his political positions through before casting them into art which, as I doubt you need be assured, is not the case with every modern playwright. The promotion of human liberty is one of his chief drives, and, whether or not you or I agree with him, he's built a solid foundation of ideas using conservatism as a means to that end.
This recent Telegraph profile does him justice as well:And then, intriguingly, there is "Conservative Tom" - the bold exception to the arts world's monolithic Leftist orthodoxy, the
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I think you maybe don't understand quite how much opprobium a great deal of British people reserve for that woman. One of the reasons I moved back to the UK is so that I will (hopefully) be here to join in the celebrations on the day that she dies!
Oh, I understand the volume of opprobrium she gets. I'll never forget, for instance, the joy with which Richard E. Grant wrote in his memoirs about being free of the torturous Hudson Hawk and "her" on the very same day. I also understand the volume of praise she gets; I've met Brits and Yanks alike who consider one of the 20th century's greatest hero(ine)s. Naturally, because I'm interested in divisive figures, I'm interested in Thatcher, perhaps the ultimate one.
However, it may be wrong to say that I understand the opprobrium and praise; maybe I'm just familiar with both of them. After plowing through countless books and articles about the woman from every possible perspective, I can't say that I consider Thatcher to be a savior or a villain. Putting her on a pedestal of dizzying height shows a lack of perspective both politcal and historical, as does damning her name reflexively. For every person decrying her as a monster for revoking free primary school milk, there's another praising her for revoking free primary school milk, and
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After plowing through countless books and articles about the woman from every possible perspective, I can't say that I consider Thatcher to be a savior or a villain. To be honest this may not have given you much of an idea about what it was (and is!) like to live with the real consequences of her policies. She was a self-proclaimed class warrior against the poor, and there was a great deal more to her rule and her ongoing legacy than the abolition of free milk (eg. privatisation, the poll tax, the Miners' Strike, the opposition to sanctions for South Africa, the illegal murder of Irish republicans, the hatred of Europe and foreigners in general (except Americans of course), the Falklands War, the dismantling of public services, Section 28 etc etc etc ad infinitum) although that gesture in itself tells us a great deal about her agenda
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Well, I did try to get a balance, which meant, of couse, trudging through both the oh-the-unimaginable-pain-I-lived-in-after-losing-my-entitlements and the everyone-who-hates-Thatcher-is-an-idiot sentiments alike, which were at, uh, roughly the same level of credibility. While I don't exactly buy that she saved Britain from crumbling to dust by dismantling national services better handled outside the public sector or not at all, I do think that British political history -- before her and since -- has vindicated many of the tough decisions she made
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Actually a google for Stoppard and Thatcher turns up this very interesting article, inevitably from the Guardian again:
In the mid-70s Stoppard became active on behalf of Soviet dissidents and visited the Sakharovs in Moscow in 1977; he supported Charter 77 - a pressure group campaigning for human rights in Czechoslovakia - and went to Prague to meet the recently released playwright Václav Havel, whose work he admired. From this involvement came Every Good Boy Deserves Favour , his musical-theatrical collaboration with André Previn, and the TV play Professional Foul. It was the ( ... )
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I wouldn't say that I like Stoppard and his work expressly for his/its politics -- I can get that anywhere -- but I appreciate the fact that he's thought his political positions through before casting them into art which, as I doubt you need be assured, is not the case with every modern playwright. The promotion of human liberty is one of his chief drives, and, whether or not you or I agree with him, he's built a solid foundation of ideas using conservatism as a means to that end.
This recent Telegraph profile does him justice as well:And then, intriguingly, there is "Conservative Tom" - the bold exception to the arts world's monolithic Leftist orthodoxy, the ( ... )
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However, it may be wrong to say that I understand the opprobrium and praise; maybe I'm just familiar with both of them. After plowing through countless books and articles about the woman from every possible perspective, I can't say that I consider Thatcher to be a savior or a villain. Putting her on a pedestal of dizzying height shows a lack of perspective both politcal and historical, as does damning her name reflexively. For every person decrying her as a monster for revoking free primary school milk, there's another praising her for revoking free primary school milk, and ( ... )
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